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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

I just can't allow myself to forgive and trust this man again.

16 replies

Feelhopeless · 15/03/2009 09:21

I am a namechanger.

I have been married to H for 7 years. We have dc. We got married quickly and probably did not take enough time to get to know each other. I was also very depressed at the time and on AD's. In hindsight was a ridiculous decision really.

During the time we have been married H has been unfaithful to me numerous times, the extent of which has only just come to light. He has been extremely verbally aggressive and on occasions physically. For the first 6 months after our first child was born and I had to give up work he refused to give me any money and would "take" me shopping each week. I was not allowed any money for myself as I "didnt need it" if the shopping had been done. He would disappear for days at a time.

All this was in the first couple of years of the marriage. Fast forward to now and I have addressed most of the behaviours with a policy of zero tolerance for his nonsense. All aggression verbal or physical is met with a request for him to leave immediately. He knows I mean it and this has stopped it to a certain extent. He tried for the first couple of years to be very controlling and bullying, eg constantly moaning about how long it takes to get dc ready to go out, making me nervous and stressed while doing it, moaning about how I keep the house, making snidey comments that only I could hear, pulling disgusted faces at any small mess then making a big deal of clearing it up, while muttering under his breath.

He also drank huge amounts and spent huge amounts of money on his social life. He felt that as long as I had enough to run the house then he can do what he likes. He refused to support me in re-training to go back to work making comments such as "you are not intelligent enough to retrain to dothat" and I should have done all that before I met him. I should just get a job and contribute to the family once our youngest goes to school and not expect to do anything better.

That is background. He says he is different now. He still drinks a lot and goes out alot when he usually stays out all night or at least until the early hours. He is still very occasionally bullying and verbally abusive but that is stamped on immediately by me. He says he is not unfaithful anymore but I don't trust him and I don't think I ever will. He says he just wants the chance to prove how different he is now. TBH though I can't believe it 100%. He is different but I think only because I am keeping such a tight rein on things. I have always said about him that he is not a bad man just a bad husband. He adores his kids and is not controlling or unpleasant to them in any way. We still have a laugh together and I feel like we can be friends but then every now and then he will get irritated and make a shitty comment and I just hate him all over again. Eg I was doing the ironing the other day and I turned the heating off. He made a big deal out of it when he came round and said "I suppose you were doing the Wii Fit were you, poor kids must be freezing!" then made a big deal out of making sure they had socks on etc. The implication was that I was a selfish, bad mother putting my own needs before dc. I hate him so much when he does this sort of thing.

He says we can never move on until I forgive and forget but I can't let my defences down.

Apologies for the length of this but I wanted to tell EVERYTHING and get some views rather than just half the story. This is as accurate as I can get it. If you manage to get through it I would so appreciate some thoughts.

OP posts:
HecatesTwopenceworth · 15/03/2009 09:26

Do you WANT to forgive and forget? Do you WANT to find a way to move on so that you can stay together? Do you LOVE him?

Coldtits · 15/03/2009 09:29

It's not in your interests to forgive annd forget, it's in his. What has he got to forgive you for?

I don't blame you for not letting your defenses down, he's a violent control freak.

Ronaldinhio · 15/03/2009 09:31

I think that it sounds as though you've been through a lot with him.
He's been violent, controlling, unfaithful,unsupportive and denegrating.
What reason do you have to stay with him or forgive him?

If you don't value yourself enough value your children and their lives. This might give you the strnegth to leave him.
It will do them no good watching their mother being treated in this way and over time he will wear you down.

Why waste your energy trying to get someone to be just basically human toward you. You are worth much more imo.

GettingaGrip · 15/03/2009 09:34

Well this is no life is it? In what way does this man enhance your life?

Have a look at this link www.hiddenhurt.co.uk/Abuser/dynamics.htm

Were you put on this earth in order to be controlled by this man? What are your children seeing? Any child will see that mum treads on eggshells and is controlled and kept 'in order' by dad.

'He says he is different now...'....IS he different now?

What effort has he made to help you to trust him and forgive him?

What do YOU want to happen?

Feelhopeless · 15/03/2009 10:14

If I am honest. He is not really that different. He is much less verbally abusive because I just do not stand for it. It feels l like a constant battle though. My feeling is that I ever relaxed and gave him an inch he would take a mile. The heating thing the other day being a prime example. He likes delivering lectures and likes to "have his say".

He still goes out lots and spends a lot of money on doing so. There is no sense of us being a family working together. He makes sure we are looked after in order to be able to pursue the things he wants to do without a guilty conscience.

He said a number of times that he kept on being unfaithful because he was young and I wouldn't forgive him and move on. He apparently could not be expected to live like a monk.

I suppose I would like to find a way to move on but I know that we are at polar opposites of how we think being a couple should be. Feel that there has been too much water under the bridge and if I let my guard down all the controlling ways and verbal abuse would start again. I feel like my daily life is a constant battle. He describes strong women as "arrogant and cold" and says he can't stand women like that. He means women who stand up to him and don't agree with him.

OP posts:
RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 15/03/2009 10:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Feelhopeless · 15/03/2009 10:32

Because of the children mainly. The dc adore him and vice versa.

Is he a nasty piece of work? I feel woolly headed about that. There is always an excuse for him - he was too young to get married, I nag him, I won't forgive him, if I don't accept his lectures about where I am going wrong then I am behaving like a sulky teenager, I don't want to be in a team with him etc etc etc. These are the reasons he claims that he is like he is. All I know is I was not like that when I first met him. I gave 100% to the marriage and relationship from the off for the first year or two and only stopped when he kept crapping on me. What else could I do? Yes I did used to nag him about going out but only because I had a newborn who was at home with alone all day (no family around) and when he went out he would disappear for days at a time, come back hungover and be useless.

I am not one to have a problem with him going away with friends and on nights out etc even when with the dc were very small. It always seemed that he had to have more than that though.

I would be happy to co-parent the dc and us both go our own way, not other relationships for me, I am not interested in that. Finally realised that I am happier out of relationships rather than in them. I would be happy for him to go his own way but he still wants to have control and make comments on me and my doings. He says he wants to work as a team but it never feels like that. It feels like I have done wrong and I have to agree with his opinion of it and listen to his telling off, if I don't agree or get upset then I am acting like a sulky teenager and "no wonder he has never tried to make this marriage work" (his words).

I am never fully convinced that this is not all my own doing and that I made him this way so should put up and shut up for the sake of my dc.

OP posts:
RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 15/03/2009 10:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

GettingaGrip · 15/03/2009 10:46

Well of course he wasn't like that when you first met him!!! You would have run a mile in the opposite direction as fast as you could if he had shown you his REAL character.

How old are your children? I guess very young. What happens when they start to have their own opinions and go against his vision of life?

You are woolly headed as you put it because this is how he keeps you and how he wants you to be. Did you march him down the aisle with a shotgun to his head? Did you force him to go off with all these other women? In what way exactly is his behaviour your fault?

The further away you and your children can get from this horrible man the more you will see what a nasty piece of work he really is.

Have a look at some websites which outline just what abusive behaviour is and you will probably find this man on all of them.

Wishing you strength and love

xxxx

Coldtits · 15/03/2009 11:00

Is he seven? Does he not bear as much responsibility for his behavior as any other adult?/ Would it be acceptable for YOU to treat anyone the way he treats you?

errr

No.

Ask his to go to Relate with you. If he refuses, that's your answer really. If he wants to make this marriage work he has to give as well as take - but it sounds like he's never given you anything but grief, so don't be surprised if he refuses to go.

Ronaldinhio · 15/03/2009 12:11

feelhopeless

read what you have written

doesn't sound so good does it?

Stop blaming yourself or hoping for a messiah moment and take control of your life. You can only effect the change you need you can't make him change or become the person you want or need.

Also tbh and I don't mean to make things worse but ime men like this start to move this sort of behaviour onto their children as the children grow up and have minds of their own to question and decide.

Wouldn't it be liberating and lovely to have a relationship where you were free to be yourself without all this self doubt and fear?

Nabster · 15/03/2009 12:16

What would you do if you didn't have children with him?

NotPlayingAnyMore · 15/03/2009 13:41

"He says he is different now."

What he says is irrelevant when what he does is a completely different kettle of fish...

drlove8 · 15/03/2009 13:55

take aside his promises and "ive' changed comments", make your decison on what you see and what you feel. ask yourself what you are gaining out of the relationship( i dont just mean financial, but emotional and physcal too)..... if you gain nothing but hassle and hassle ,there's your answer!good luck, (by the sound of your post , you are intellegent, so retrain if you want to, dont let anyone hold you back!)

BalloonSlayer · 15/03/2009 14:45

He says he has changed but clearly hasn't as he keeps making the same comments.

Forgiveness requires repentance. He would need to be truly repentant and to have totally changed his behaviour to have earned forgiveness.

I would think that you may be able to forgive and forget one day - outside the marriage.

Feelhopeless · 15/03/2009 15:24

Thanks everyone for replying.

He has improved to a certain extent and his smarmy comments and aggression happen ALOT less than they used to but I was talking to my SIL about him the other day (his sister) and she said "he is just like my dad, the trouble is you can never relax with them because they enjoy being the boss and taking the piss and if you let them get away with anything it will always escalate, you have to be on top of them constantly". I know she is right. Things are only bearable because I have no tolerance whatsoever for his nonsense but he still never stops trying to implement it. It is too deeply ingrained into him. He honestly believes and tells me that I am behaving like a sulkly teenager if I don't always agree and discuss where I went wrong if something happens he doesn't like.

He works long hours so I don't see that much of him tbh. I really just want him to leave me alone when he is here. Whenever I ask him to leave he promises things will be different and tells me that our kids need both their parents. I feel like most of the damage has been done now and there is not much to gain by leaving except a whole new world of stress and laying down the law because he feels even more out of control now that he doesn't live with his kids.

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